International Trade

Over the weekend, the United States, Mexico and Canada reached an agreement to modernize and rebalance trade between the countries. The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will enable food and agriculture to trade more fairly, and could help expand exports of American agricultural products. All food and agricultural products that have zero tariffs under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will remain at zero tariffs. Other achievements related to the fresh produce industry include:

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has launched the trade mitigation package to assist farmers suffering from damage due to unjustified trade retaliation by foreign nations. The package offers three means of assistance to specialty crop commodities: Food Purchase and Distribution Program, Agricultural Trade Promotion Program, and a program that has yet to be determined for almonds and cherries.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a trade mitigation plan that falls substantially short of making fruit, vegetable and tree nut farmers whole for the damages they have incurred, and will continue to incur, as a result of the trade war with China.

In this video, Western Growers provides an initial analysis of the plan and details how a rapid and successful conclusion of our trade conflicts is the only outcome that will preserve our family farms.

The USDA is developing trade mitigation programs to assist farmers in response to trade damage from unjustified tariff retaliation from China and other countries. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is offering a food purchase and distribution program that will be offered to specialty crop growers. However, in order to qualify and sell directly to USDA, you must become a USDA “approved vendor” first.

AMS will be hosting opportunities to join a live, interactive webinar to discuss these details: